1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an othogonal adjusting mechanism comprising a frame, an adjustable member, which defines an adjusting plane and is mounted in said frame for a movement relative to said frame in said plane at least in two orthogonal directions, and two actuators, which are mounted on said frame and coupled to said adjustable member and operable to move said adjustable member in two orthogonal directions in said adjusting plane relative to said frame.
In a special aspect this invention relates to the application of such orthogonal adjusting mechanism to an orthogonally adjustable sight, particularly for rifles, comprising an eyepiece carrier, which is mounted in a housing for a guided movement in two orthogonal directions which are transverse to a sight line, an eyepiece, e.g., a peephole sight, which is mounted on said carrier, and two actuators, which are mounted in the housing and are operable to adjust the carrier in said two directions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In various sights, particularly in rifle sights, it is necessary for an adjustment, for a correction of the point of impact, for adaptation to changing conditions and for other reasons to adjust a peephole sight or another eye-piece in height and laterally so that the desired sight line is obtained, which extends from the eye through the rear sight and the front sight to the target. It is desired to perform relatively small adjustments with an extremely high precision by adjusting means which can easily be operated. Said requirements are not adequately complied with by the known sights, in which the eyepiece carriers consist in most cases of compound slides having dovetail and/or rod tracks, i.e., slide tracks which will not be operable unless they have a certain backlash so that the adjustment cannot be performed as easily as desired. Besides, said known sights involve a rather high structural expenditure because an excessive backlash inevitably results from the manufacture and must be eliminated by additional pressure-applying elements, wedges and associated screw drives. Moreover, the compound slides and their slide tracks can be manufactured only at high cost and the entire sight has a rather large space requirement.
It has also been proposed to provide an elongate tubular eyepiece carrier, which is supported at one end by means of a universal joint and is pivoted at the other hand to the actuators so that a fairly exact adjustment is permitted owing to the leverages which are provided. But that known sight has the disadvantage that the universal joint is liable to be deranged, that the assembly has a large overall length and that the design precludes the use of conventional accessories for the sight, such as different peephole sights, filters, and the like.